RGC Drive To Top in Drovers Win

RGC 24 Llandovery 7

RGC 26 Carmarthen Quins 13 RGC 24 Llandovery 7

RGC rose to the top of the Principality Premiership West Conference after a strong win against Llandovery.

The Drovers arrived at Stadiwm Zip World top of the league and looking to do the double over RGC, a after their win on the opening day of the season. Nerves were settled after 2 minutes when winger Harri Evans touched down, and the boot of Jacob Botica added the conversion. Seconds later RGC were reduced to 14 men when Tiaan Loots was given a yellow card and Llandovery cranked up the pressure with a number of scrums. The RGC defence stood strong and the relief was felt in the stands after Tom Hughes picked up the turn over ball and cleared it 50 yards. It was important that Llandovery didn’t score when RGC where a man down, but RGC went one better when Botica hit a penalty just before Loots returned to the play. The fly half knocked over another penalty to add to his tally. The visitors did have plenty of ball and moved through the phases, but they weren’t going anywhere and that frustration ended in some knock ons. Tom Hughes and Afon Bagshaw were proving to be a useful outlet for RGC making some important runs to ease the pressure. Botica extended the lead to 16 – Nil with another penalty, and they were clinical in making sure they got some points when they had an opportunity.
Drovers still having the possession, and territoty but credit to RGC who were disciplined in the tackle area.

2nd half didn’t really get going, and when Botica made it 4 penalties from 4 the game started to slip away from Llandovery. Harri Evans was making some good runs down the wing, and Evan Yardley went close to scoring. The highlight of the 2nd half was a Tom Hughes try, and it was started in the RGC half when Dion Jones made a break before offloading to Hughes and the centre powered on the evade the tackles and score. Llandovery picked up a try when Mathew Moore crossed the whitewash and the conversion was successful as well.

The pace of the game ebbed away in the final 10 minutes, with a few niggles from both sides which interrupted any flow and momentum. RGC finished the game with 14 men when replacement Jordan Scott was yellow carded. The game became more scrappy and the final play of the game was a yellow for Llandovery’s captain Richard Brooks.

Tim Grey believes this sets RGC up for the next block of games “To beat the team at the top of the table is great for our confidence and we can look to push on against Llanelli next week. I thought we were disciplined in defence and clinical in attack, along with a strong set piece."

Try scorer Tom Hughes had another impressive game with some key attacking runs “We knew they would play wide, so if we stuck to our game and had that line speed then we knew we would test them. We play a lot of touch rugby and offloads in training so that ability to turn defence into attack with turn over ball is important to us. Dion Jones made a few breaks today, and I managed to get on his shoulder and pick up that try”